Seby Zavala pushed his way toward the front of the White Sox catching prospect line by, well, clubbing the shit out of the ball.

He hit a combined .282/.353/.499 across two levels of Single-A in 2017, and matched Eloy Jiménez dinger for dinger in power production in Double-A Birmingham last April.

“Probably as hot as I’ve ever been, as long as I’ve ever been,” Zavala said. “I had a couple injuries that maybe affected me a little bit, but toward the end of the season I started getting my rhythm back, started seeing the ball better.”

Whether the wrist inflammation that sapped Zavala of his home run power after his promotion to Triple-A drove the White Sox to sign James McCann as the major-league backup isn’t a major what-if of the offseason, but it’s certainly a question.

It’s a question because of Zavala’s advanced game management, which allowed him to rise through the system as his hitting...